SECRETS OF THE MANOR HOUSENew Documentary Goes Behind the Glittering Facades to Discover What Life Was Really Like in the
Great Houses of Edwardian England—The Real-Life Downton Abbeys

Premiering Sunday, January 22 at 7 p.m. on WTVP-HD.

Wednesday, January 11th, 2012

PBS announced a late-breaking addition to its program schedule.
SECRETS OF THE MANOR HOUSE
will premiere on January 22, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. on WTVP-HD and will stream in its entirety beginning January 23
on video.pbs.org. A fascinating glimpse of life behind the velvet curtains,
SECRETS OF THE MANOR HOUSE goes inside the great homes of Edwardian England, recently brought to life on
PBS’ MASTERPIECE series
such as “Downton Abbey.”

One hundred years ago the British manor house was in its heyday, sheltering families of enormous wealth
and privilege within its stately walls. But what was really going on behind closed doors, where these wealthy families
and their poor servants coexisted? Shot on location at some of Britain’s finest estates and country houses and featuring
interviews with contemporary masters and the servants, SECRETS OF THE MANOR HOUSE reveals that life in
the manor house was a world unchanged for almost a thousand years. By the time the 20th century entered its second
decade, mounting financial, political and social pressures would alter the world of the Edwardian aristocrat forever.

“SECRETS OF THE MANOR HOUSE allows viewers to delve deeper and understand the history
and context behind costume dramas that MASTERPIECE has made famous on PBS,” said Beth Hoppe, PBS vice president
of programming. “This new special gives viewers an enriched understanding of the historical circumstances that shaped
the fictional characters they love.”

SECRETS OF THE MANOR HOUSE goes inside two of Britain’s most legendary manor houses,
Manderston in Berwickshire and Dunham Massey, former home of the Earl of Stamford. During the Edwardian era, behind
the facades of these great houses, a hidden army of up to 300 servants tended to every need of an aristocratic family.
In 1901, there were more than 1.5 million servants in Britain and grand estates occupied half the land. The tradition
of primogeniture insured that they were handed down to the first-born son. Land was power and wealth, and not only
did the first-born son inherit the land, he inherited the title of earl, marquess or duke, and the political power
that accompanied it. And like their masters, the serving classes in the great manor houses also adhered to a
well-defined ranking system.

SECRETS OF THE MANOR HOUSE features some of the premiere historians of the Edwardian era,
including Lawrence James (The Illustrated Rise and Fall of the British Empire.) As he and others explain, by
Edwardian times, the agricultural revenues of the great country estates were dwindling. With the Industrial
Revolution, wealth began moving away from agriculture and into manufacturing and banking. While the easiest solution
would have been to sell some of their land, the practice of entailment demanded that estates be passed on intact. Many
aristocrats, finding themselves in need of cash, married rich American heiresses in a trend that was quietly called
“cash for titles.” As historian Dr. Elisabeth Kehoe (Fortune’s Daughters: The Extravagant Lives of the Jerome
Sisters) recounts, among the many American heiresses who married into the aristocracy was Jennie Jerome, who wed
the second son of the Duke of Marlborough and was mother to Winston Churchill.

Rumblings of change were also coming from below stairs. Those who served the lords and ladies led
backbreaking lives of non-stop work for little pay and less freedom. Thousands of working-class Edwardians left these
country estates to make their way across the sea to America, hoping for a better life and more freedom in the land of
opportunity. When hundreds of these would-be immigrants, traveling in second and third class, perished in the sinking
of the Titanic, the inequity of the British class system was shown to the world in all its ugliness.

In 1914, the outbreak of the First World War caused complete upheaval in British society. It was the
men of the aristocracy who, as officers, led the soldiers into battle. A brutal, terrible war, it sent millions of
young men to their deaths, most of whom did not even have the right to vote.

By 1918 when the war had ended, an old world had passed away and the modern era had begun. For the
British aristocracy, it was the end of life as they had known it. But it is a world that lives on in the continued
popularity of authors from Jane Austen to Evelyn Waugh, and beloved television series from “Upstairs,
Downstairs” to “Downton Abbey.”

Produced and directed by Susannah Ward,
SECRETS OF THE MANOR HOUSE
is a production of Pioneer Productions. Executive Producers are Stuart Carter and Robert Strange.

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For further information contact Linda Miller, WTVP Vice President of
Programming,
at (309) 495-0591 or linda.miller@wtvp.org